1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an outboard motor electronic part unit.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional outboard motor is sometimes provided with a V-type engine. An embodiment is explained with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. As shown in FIG. 6, outboard motor 1 is detachably mounted on a board (not shown) via attaching bracket 2. As shown in FIG. 7, engine 3 is covered with cover 4 which is formed in a cross-sectional tapered shape tapering to the rear side from the front side along the shape of engine 3.
A side surface of engine 3 has attached thereto electronic part unit 5 which is formed by arranging electronic control parts of engine 3 into a unit and has a rectangular parallelepiped shape.
However, in the above conventional art, in order to prevent interference with the inner surface of the rear part of cover 4 with a square part of the rear part of electronic part unit 5, electronic part unit 5 is required has its attachment position adjusted or cover 4 is required to be molded a slightly larger. Therefore, there have been problems in that the attachment position of electronic part unit 5 is considerably limited and cover 4 is enlarged.
For example, if electronic part unit 5 is not attached, it is sufficient to form cover 4 which has a size shown by a dash-dotxe2x80x94dot line in FIG. 7. If electronic part unit 5 is attached, since cover 4 has a cross-sectional tapered shape, cover 4 is required to be enlarged to the size shown by a continuous line in FIG. 7 in order to avoid cover 4 interfering with the square part of the rear part of electronic part unit 5.
On the other hand, if the height of electronic part unit 5 can be reduced, in other words, if the length of the part protruding from engine 3 can be shortened, cover 4 is not required to be enlarged. However, since discrete parts which require a certain height are used on the circuit board in electronic part unit 5, the height of electronic part unit 5 cannot simply be reduced.
Furthermore, the above electronic part unit 5 is filled with resin for waterproofing; however, the weight of the resin causes an increase in the weight of the outboard motor, and this is a problem.
To solve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an outboard motor electronic part unit which is able to be attached to a desired place of the side surface of engine, and is reduce in size and is lighter.
A first aspect of the present invention is to provide an outboard motor electronic part unit provided between an engine for a boat and a cover covering the engine, comprising a case which is attached to the engine or the cover and is provided along a space formed between the engine and the cover; and a circuit board equipped with a connector which is housed and fixed in the case, wherein an inclined surface in which a height thereof is great at the connector and low at a distal portion far from the connector, is provided in the case.
For example, the engine may be referred to as engine 3, the cover may be referred to as cover 6, the outboard motor electronic part unit may be referred to as outboard motor electronic part unit 8, the space may be referred to as space 7, the case may be referred to as case 9, the connector may be referred to as connector 10, 11, or 12, the circuit board may be referred to as circuit board 13, and the inclined surface may be referred to as inclined surface 93a, which are described in embodiments which are explained below.
According to the above structure, since the case has a small height by providing the inclined surface, the space occupied by the case can be small. Furthermore, the case can be provided in the space formed between the engine and the cover without interfering with the cover. Therefore, the limitation of the mounting position of the case to the engine is decreased and the outboard motor electronic part unit is smaller and lighter.
Furthermore, in the outboard motor electronic part unit, the circuit board may be mounted with parts having a large height among circuit parts near the connector and with parts having a lesser height among circuit parts in the distal direction from the connector so as to be housed in the case having the inclined surface.
For example, the parts having a great height are referred to as discrete parts 15 and 16 which are described in the embodiments which are explained below.
According to the above structure, since the case has a reduced height by providing the inclined surface, the space occupied by the case can be small. Circuit parts can be mounted along the inclined surface in the case, in which parts having a large height among circuit parts are mounted near the connector and with parts having lesser heights among circuit parts in the distal direction from the connector.